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We recently represented a major food processing company in an Employment Tribunal claim and were successful in defending the claim, avoiding an award that could have run into tens of thousands of pounds. Although the organisation, as with many organisations this size, had some experience of Employment Tribunals, it was nevertheless in need of our…

Moorepay recently defended a large and well respected care trust in the Employment Tribunal against claims of race and disability discrimination presented by one of their ex-employees. The Trust were very keen to defend the claim, not only to protect their well-established and excellent reputation, but also to protect the current and future contractual relationships…

We recently helped a small organisation through a difficult process after an ex-employee brought a number of claims, which could have cost thousands in compensation. This was the first Employment Tribunal claim the business had received in 20 years of trading, so they were understandably unsure what to expect and as a result and were…

Today was the first fully Conservative budget since 1996. Chancellor George Osborne announced a raft of new proposals, many of which will have a huge impact on businesses. The most significant announcements for UK SMEs included landmark changes to Sunday trading hours, Corporation Tax and – the biggest one – a new Minimum Wage, designed to…

There are big Health & Safety changes coming this April for the constructive industry. CDM 2015 is a radical overhaul of how the Construction Industry is to be regulated and ALL Construction companies will have to comply with the revised CDM Regs from Monday 6 April 2015. Employers will need to provide information, instruction, training and…

The new ‘Fit For Work’ service is due to launch in April 2015- but what is it and how will it affect you as an employer? Nearly one million employees each year reach the four-week absence point, at an annual cost of around £9bn to employers in sickness payments and related costs. In addition, the…

Many businesses adopt the months of April to March as their standard holiday year. However, sometimes Easter falls twice during a ‘leave year’, which will impact an employer’s responsibility to provide the minimum amount of statutory holiday each year. The 2015/16 leave year is such a case. A leave year begins on the first day of…

In a ground-breaking case, an Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled that overtime should be included in holiday pay. Historically, non-guaranteed overtime has not been used in the calculation for holiday pay at the time that employees take leave. This has long been criticised by unions on the basis that, as they see it, it penalised workers for taking…

Employment Tribunals now have the power to order equal pay audits for employers who have lost equal pay claims. Equal pay audits have previously been championed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission as good practice.  However, they have not been mandatory until now – as we briefly mentioned last month in our article Four October…

The case against the introduction of Employment Tribunal Fees is gaining momentum – with UNISON bringing brand new evidence to the table. The Trade Union’s recent appeal case – heard on 18 September – has been put on hold and a new one with much stronger evidence will be presented at the High Court. UNISON reports that in the…

More than four million workers are part of an Auto Enrolment workplace pension scheme, according to recent figures from The Pensions Regulator (TPR). More than 21,000 employers have now told TPR how they have met their duties in their compliance declaration. The figures also showed that 8.6 million employees were now members of qualifying pension…

Chancellor George Osborne delivered his Budget speech in Parliament this week, with a favourable outcome for SMEs. He boosted two key areas of commercial activity – business investment and exports, both of which have badly underperformed in recent years. The Chancellor doubled the Annual Investment Allowance and, from the start of the new tax year,…